Capitalism - The Open Discussion

Many people rail against “the evils of capitalism”, but I find their complaints to be against "crony capitalism", not "true capitalism". I would like to challenge those ideas and PROVE that capitalism truly is moral and all outcomes are positive provided you participate in the system (i.e. if you don’t work, you don’t eat).

The biggest complaint I see is that capitalism breeds greed, always ends in monopolies, and the wealthy prey on the poor. My premise has always been that none of those things can happen without the helping hand of the government. 

I believe the following:

1) ALL monopolies have had a hand from government to become a monopoly, with only one exception. 

2) Greed (as the sole motivation) cannot survive in a capitalistic economy. 

3) Because the consumer always has the upper hand, the wealthy are at their mercy, not the other way around. 

In other words, if we remove government intervention from the economy, unbridled capitalism will fix the problems that arise within it.

So here is the premise we will be working with:

Government has only 2 functions.

    1) provide national security, both internal and external (i.e. police/military)

    2) protect the rights of its citizens, meaning it will prevent anyone from trampling on someone else’s rights as a citizen. "Rights" is defined as those things outlined in the Constitution.

All other functions of society operate within capitalism.

It is IMPORTANT to keep the above premise in mind for the discussion. We have been trained to think that the government is there to provide EVERYTHING for us, so we may tend to keep assigning responsibilities to it. I want to go back to the roots of limited government and see where we end up.

So tell me about your position on capitalism. Where do you have an issue with it. What is wrong with it. What is right about it? Why doesn't it work, etc.

Author's note - I am aware that I may regret this challenge based on the time required to answer any questions or statements made, but I think it is important that this sort of dialog occur. We need to block out what the media, politicians, and special interest groups are feeding us and just discuss (with an open mind) what capitalism truly is. I will welcome ALL comments and questions, provided it is done in a respectful manner. I will delete all vulgar/slanderous/hateful comments. I hope for this to be a learning experience for all who participate, including myself. I do not have any formal education in economics. All my knowledge (and ideas) come from my pursuit of entrepreneurship and reading of many leading economists.

Toxic People - My Thoughts

NOTE - Let me preface this piece by saying that I am NOT a Trump supporter. I think he would be far more effective if he stayed off social media and just stuck to doing his job. I state this because what you read in the following could easily make me "appear" to be one of his supporters. The subject matter circles around him. Now on to my thoughts...

I made a decision a few weeks ago to remove toxic people from my life. Toxic people are those who have nothing but negative things to say, people whose minds are so closed that it was often painful to have a discussion with them, people who put their own thoughts out there but refuse to listen to any opposing ideas, etc. What I found was that I removed NO ONE because I kept making excuses for their behavior and language. I WANTED to see the best in them.

So then the "kids from Covington" video happened. In case you don't know, there was a group of Catholic school boys who travelled from Covington, Kentucky to Washington D.C. to participate in the "March for Life". It is a protest against legalized abortion. Some of the boys were wearing MAGA hats (Make America Great Again), Donald Trump's signature statement. The video showed one of the boys, in particular, "confronting" a Native American Vietnam veteran, essentially mocking him and blocking him from leaving. This man also talked to reporters telling them how he "feared for his life" as he was surrounded by these "beasts".

Many of my Facebook friends condemned the boys and spewed their normal anti-Trump comments. No one got unfriended because I know where they stand on Trump. BUT, the next event was when the truth about the situation came out. A "full length" video (1 hour 45 minutes) appeared and showed that the boys not only DID NOT confront the man, but the man approached them as they were being harrassed by 4 black Israelites. The Black Israelites are a black supremacist group. When the Native American man got up in the face of the one boy who was the target of all the following hate, the boy never raised a hand, never moved, but simply stood still and smiled (some say "smirked", but that is a matter of opinion).

Some of my friends retracted their original statements, and I applaud them for that. But some others could not admit being wrong and doubled down. They found something, anything they could, to not have to admit that a Trump supporter might have one redeeming quality. I read things about how the boy was "disrespectful" to a tribal elder which is far worse than being disrespectful to other adults. His "smirk" brought back memories of "bullies" and "privileged white boys" they grew up with. To be fair some of the teenagers acted like teenagers (oh the horror!), so of course that also makes them a target for hate because they should have handled this with a much more "mature" attitude.

This showed me who these so called "friends" really are. I can no longer make excuses for them. I can no longer find a glimmer of hope that they are not actually toxic, where before, I would justify them with "that is just how they are". It is painful to think that all my discussions with them, when I thought they were actually hearing what I was saying, never added some sort of value to their lives. 

My friendship does not require and depend on you agreeing with me, but it does require that you hear me when I speak. I consider every conversation a precious gem that enhances my life in some way. Whether it be that we agree and find more commonality than we had before, maybe we disagree and it shows me a larger picture than I had considered, or even if it showed some ignorance on either of our sides, but we walk away as more informed or better people for having considered each other's ideas. But when you have so much HATE in your heart (toward Trump in this case) that you cannot hear the truth and accept it, then you have declared, loud and clear, "I AM A TOXIC PERSON!"

What hurts (and surprised me) the most, is that it was more than just one or two people. It hurts that I have been living under the idea that no one can truly be toxic. That there is always hope to somehow help them become a better person. I fooled myself into thinking that I would not be dragged down by them, but I could actually lift them up. And it hurts that I NEED to cut them out of my life. Apparently, our discussions were not discussions at all, they were shouting matches and my "friends" were wearing ear plugs. I am not just speaking about Facebook, but also face to face. I will continue to pray for them, but I cannot expose myself to their toxicity.

So my eyes are now wide open. I will see toxicity for what it really is. This past weekend, I was at a convention, and I heard a speaker say that traditional friendships are built on having a common past. That maybe the best friendships are actually built on having a common future. We hang on to friends because we somehow connect through past associations. But if your path is taking you to a dark place, somewhere that I don't want to go, I may need to let you go and find someone with a common destination who will help me get there. I prefer that you come with me, but YOU will have to choose that for yourself.

Should We Tax Wealthy People to Help Others? - My thoughts

I got involved in a conversation on Facebook that started with the above meme/twitter post. 

This got me to thinking. There are those who believe that if someone has a lot of money, it is reasonable to expect them to use it to help others. The meme also declares that we need to tax them in order to get the money, because they won’t do it voluntarily. In other words, it is OK to “force” people to help others because WE (not “they”) believe it is the right thing to do. Rephrasing once again, “I think YOU should help this situation, because YOU can afford it. YOU have way too much money to keep it to yourself.” 

(I think that makes for a fair paraphrase).

So here’s the part I started thinking about: If you make $2,138/year, you are in the top 50% of the world economy. If you are AT the poverty line in America, you are in the top 30% globally. The top 10% is around $61,000. So, based on this info, can people in far poorer conditions reasonably expect those with far more than THEY have, expect them to support the issues they live with? After all, that is what we are saying when we want to force wealthy people to support the issue WE believe they should help with. "YOU have so much more than ME, so YOU are responsible for fixing bad situations." 

Since the majority of Americans are far wealthier than the rest of the world, does the rest of the world have a right to demand the same of you and me, to fix bad situations? If YOU think the wealthy (defined as a comparison to your own financial situation) have the responsibility to spend their money on the issues YOU deem worthy, do far poorer people in the world have the right to think that YOU (being wealthy in their eyes) have the responsibility to spend YOUR money on the issues THEY deem worthy? And since YOU so firmly believe that YOU are right (about the wealthy in this country), will you put your money where your mouth is, and do just that? If not, do we need a “world tax”, (perhaps instituted by the U.N.) to get the money from YOU?

You can’t say that it is a different situation, because you have FAR more than most people on this planet. It’s all a matter of where you fall on the scale. You may not see yourself as “wealthy” because you make your comparison with those who have more than you. Try the comparison in the opposite direction with those who have far less than you. YOU ARE WEALTHY! And if you believe the wealthy are responsible for fixing bad situations, why don’t you do it?